EXCLUSIVE – Former President Donald Trump, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, suggested that the terrorists were transported “absolutely” from Afghanistan as part of the US evacuation effort from Kabul last month, questioning the Biden administration verification process.
The former president, during the interview, considered the Biden administration’s effort to resettle the Afghan allies “incredible”.
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“There’s never been a war (win, lose or draw) and bring everyone to your country,” Trump said. “That’s a lot of people and it already has a huge cost: they’re talking about billions of dollars.”
The Biden administration, last month before the August 31 deadline to withdraw all military goods from Afghanistan, transported more than 124,000 people from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. Biden administration officials said there were approximately 6,000 U.S. citizens.
Since the withdrawal, the Biden administration has said its mission has shifted from a military mission to a “diplomatic” one and that it is committed to continuing to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies, some with special visas. immigrant (SIV) pending. , who helped the U.S. military throughout the war.
But Trump warned that the people the Biden administration is relocating to the U.S. could pose a risk to national security.
“People reinstalling: it’s the worst. There was no exam,” Trump said. “And it’s probably a tough group of people, because they were able to get on the plane and they were aggressive.”
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“What does that mean? Does that mean you have terrorists there?” Trump asked. “You absolutely do.”
At this point, the Department of Homeland Security has marked 44 Afghan evacuees as potential national security threats in the United States, according to a Washington Post report last week.
Also last week, senior U.S. officials told Fox News that Camp Bondsteel, a U.S. military base in Kosovo, will temporarily house Afghan refugees who do not pass the initial round of verification. These officials told Fox News that several refugees have already been sent to the base, but said it was unclear what the next steps would be for those who failed the initial security check, including whether they would return to the base. Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban. .
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He White house, however, said intelligence and counterterrorism officials “worked all day” to “guard all Afghans” before allowing them to enter the United States through a screening process involving “biometric and biographical reviews of security by our intelligence services, police and terrorism professionals. ”
The White House said those with SIV and vulnerable Afghans were relocated to third countries in Europe and Asia that had agreed to “serve as transit hubs” before undergoing “robust security checks and flying to the United States.” .
“You took really bad people on those planes and distributed them all over the world, with all of them coming to the United States, because the rest of the world won’t take them,” Trump continued. “The rest of the world will hand them over to the United States and ask for a lot of money to help us, but, you know, it’s an endless thing.”
The former president described it as a “difficult situation”, but stressed that “no war has ever taken the people of a country where there was war and moved them to their country”.
Meanwhile, in addition to security concerns, the White House announced Friday that it has temporarily suspended flights carrying Afghan refugees into the country due to a concern over measles.
“Operation Allies Welcome flights to the United States have been temporarily halted at the request of [Centers for Disease Control] and with great caution because of the four diagnosed cases of measles among Afghans that recently arrived in the United States, “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
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He said people are in quarantine and the CDC has begun tracking contacts. In addition, all arriving Afghans must have a measles vaccine as a condition of entry into the United States.
The Associated Press had previously reported that “health security concerns” had shut down flights from Qatar and Germany. There are about 10,000 evacuees at the U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany.
Since last week, DHS said approximately 60,000 Afghans have arrived in the U.S. since mid-August.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.